Greetings Viewers,

As you probably know, Google’s I/O Developer’s Conference is coming up this year. Google I/O is a conference where developers discuss developing for android and Google. Things like building web, mobile, and enterprise applications and also developing for Google’s technology like Android, Chrome OS, Google Web Toolkit, and more. This is usually a two day conference and was originally scheduled for the 24th and 25th of April, but was extended to a three day conference in June. The new dates for Google I/O is June 27th through the 29th. In this article I am going to discuss what you might expect to come from Android this year in 2012. Google made some pretty big advancements in 2011, going from Gingerbread to Honeycomb, and even announcing Ice Cream Sandwich. So lets jump in.

The most obvious thing to expect would be more phones. Since there are many Apple rumors flying around about their new phone and tablet coming out this year, we should expect a LOT of new android phones. This year is the year the quad-core phones and tablets will start getting popular. Last month Asus released the Transformer Prime, the first quad-core tablet, so I suspect other brands will try to compete. Also, rumors are being spread about the release of a quad-core phone, the HTC Edge. If this phone comes out, we should expect to see plenty others start following. Nvidia makes the quad-core chip in the Transformer Prime and may start making chips for phones. Qualcomm is also working on creating a quad-core chip and reports say it will be used in phones by the end of the year.

Second, Ice Cream Sandwich, Android 4.0, will be released on many more phones and tablets. Not very many phones have been updated yet to ICS and only one ships with it. So look out for a bunch of updates as the year goes on. Many manufacturers like HTC, Motorola, and Samsung have released a list promising updates to many of their phones. They do keep these lists up-to-date online and you may want to check it recently and see if your phone will be updated.

Google TV is rumored to come out with some major updates this year too. Google TV didn’t really take off last year like they planned, but they have been working on it and are hoping for the best in 2012. Samsung and LG have been working on some new “smart televisions” based around Google TV’s platform. I don’t know how these TVs will do compared to the Google TV now, but only time can tell.

Last year at Google’s I/O Developer’s Conference, Google announced a project called “Android @ Home.” This program is supposed to connect your Android phone to your appliances like your lights or dishwasher. At the conference Google said these products would come out by the end of 2011, but that apparently didn’t happen. Going by this report, I am expecting the appliances to start showing up in 2012 maybe soon. It may turn out like Google’s Chromebook. The Chromebooks came out but never really got popular and they flopped. I would like to see some Android powered appliances and I think they would be cool.

Another announcement form 2011′s I/O conference was the Android Upgrade Alliance. The group consisted of Verizon, HTC, Samsung, Sprint, Sony Ericsson, LG, T-Mobile, Vodaphone, Motorola, and AT&T. They basically wanted to commit to providing timely Android OS updates to all new phones and tablets for the first 18 months of being on the market. Since the conference, there has been no other discussion about the alliance and seems to have been dropped. Some of the manufacturers seem to be releasing reasonable updates for there devices, while others just drop them once the device’s buzz dies down. I don’t know for sure if this will actually happen this year, but I hope to see some sort of progress later in 2012.

The last thing I would like to discuss is Android “J”. Android “J” is the next major version of android. Many are speculating that it will be called Jelly Bean, but for now we will call it Android “J”. I know that Ice Cream Sandwich was just released and is only on like two devices, but you better believe that Google is already hard at work on its successor. Last year at the I/O conference, Google announced Ice Cream Sandwich, so it is possible that this year we may get a glimpse at Android “J” and what it will hold in the future. There isn’t much to say about Android “J” because very little is known about it. The only reliable fact out there about it really is that the name will begin with the letter “J”.

This article is only scratching the surface of what Google has planned this year for Android. I am excited for the new year and can’t wait to see what Google and Android do. These expectations are not set in stone, they aren’t guaranteed to happen. These are only things that we think are going to happen. With many conventions coming up and that just finished and happened, these next few months will be filled with news, rumors, and talk. Come back to see my article next friday.

Comment below with what you think will happen with Android this year, I am interested in what you think and speculate.

I’m out,

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